Depending on how it’s packaged, romaine can have up to a 21-day shelf life, the FDA pointed out in a recent statement. That suggests that the last of the tainted lettuce has now passed its expiration date. If you check expiration dates, you’re probably safe.

Still, Be Careful

But you’re not guaranteed to be safe. Maybe a restaurant is right now making a salad with lettuce that’s just two days past date, because it still looks good. Maybe there’s more E. coli to be found in areas outside Yuma. You never know.

Do not eat or buy romaine lettuce unless you can confirm it is not from the Yuma growing region. Romaine lettuce has a shelf life of several weeks, and contaminated lettuce could still be in homes, stores, and restaurants.

Product labels often do not identify growing regions; so, do not eat or buy romaine lettuce if you do not know where it was grown.

This advice includes whole heads and hearts of romaine, chopped romaine, baby romaine, organic romaine, and salads and salad mixes containing romaine lettuce. If you do not know if the lettuce in a salad mix is romaine, do not eat it.

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So why is the CDC is still finding new cases? It doesn’t mean people are still getting sick. There’s a delay between when you eat the lettuce and when you get sick, and then another delay from then until you see a doctor and the doctor gets in touch with the CDC. In total, they expect a two to three week delay. So far, the latest known illness started on April 25, which is two weeks ago. It’s likely that more cases will turn up as the outbreak fizzles out.